“Another View: CEQA reform bill leaves safeguards in place”

“On Aug. 26, The Bee published an editorial titled “CEQA end run could come back to haunt the Delta and Sacramento.” The editorial states that legal experts claim the CEQA reform bill might exempt the peripheral tunnels from environmental review. This assertion is wrong.The CEQA reform bill did not create an exemption for the peripheral tunnels or for any other project. California’s environmental standards are among the most stringent in the nation if not the world, including groundbreaking climate change legislation such as AB 32 and SB 375. Yet today, public and private projects throughout the state are commonly challenged under CEQA even when they meet all these existing, stringent local, state and federal environmental and land use laws, regulations and local planning requirements.”